After he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York (1906), Wainwright joined the cavalry and saw action in Europe during World War I. In September 1940 he was promoted to major general and sailed for Manila to take command of the Philippine Division. Thus, when World War II broke out in the Far East (December 1941), he was already a seasoned leader of well-trained U.S. and Filipino troops. When Gen. Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines to assume a higher post (March 1942), Wainwright was given command of all U.S. forces remaining in the islands—a situation that was already militarily hopeless. Retreating finally from the peninsula of Bataan to the island fortress of Corregidor in Manila harbour, Wainwright was forced on May 6 to surrender his hungry, battle-scarred forces to the Japanese. From then until August 1945 he and his men were held prisoners of war in Taiwan and in Manchuria. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, he returned home to receive a hero’s welcome and the Medal of Honor.